Still Tinkering....

Yeap! I am still tinkering or 'staging' those three white floating shelves in our family room. Since we spend a lot of time in that room playing games or watching tv or we're in the adjoining kitchen I see the shelves a lot. I keep playing with different colors, textures, and arrangements.

Here's what I have settled on so far:

Here's what I had about a month ago:

Which evolved over the past month to this:

Since there are a lot of neutral colors in the room (white sofas, tan rug, gray ottoman, coffee colored walls....) I decided to embrace color within the shelves. The '3 Blue Crabs' watercolor became my jumping off point. I searched around the house for pieces that had the same brilliant blue in them and arranged them on the shelves. I also have seen the look of layering pictures a lot in magazines and catalogues lately and decided to give a hand at trying that look by layering the 3 blue beach watercolors.

I plan on buying 3 tall white pillar candles to place in these blue glass candleholders:

Steve picked up this seaweed on our latest beach trip. He soaked it first in a bleach/water solution to remove the ocean smell then dried it out on the deck for a few days:

The two crab watercolors are from a local artist in Oak Island, NC and were gifts from Steve's parents:

This fun print is one of my favorite wedding presents from Steve's cousin Darren and his family. The artist is located in Wilmington, NC and I have purchased more fun art from her for the kids' bathroom which I'll share soon:

One of my favorite photos of Bryce at 2 years old feeding newborn Buddy a small bottle:

The 3 shelves fit within my philosophy of decorating:

1. Have elements from nature in every room (plant, coral, dried seaweed, jars of shells)

2. Have elements that sparkle (silver lantern and silver frames on watercolors)

3. Have items that you remind of you great trips or happy memories (baby pictures of our 2 kiddios, framed art from the beach and our wedding)

Here's the rest of the family room:

I really wanted a sectional sofa for this room but we wanted to save money and reuse our old Pottery Barn sofa (along the window wall) which we had a new white cotton slipcover made for it last year so by purchasing the new Crate and Barrell slipcovered sofa (also white cotton) along with the corduroy gray ottoman I think we created the comfortable look of a sectional sofa. It's a great room to hang out and watch tv in.



Raven the dog loves to hang out with her family so she needed a bed in the family room:

This ottoman was a great find as a floor sample at the Crate and Barrell Outlet store. It serves as a great place to lie while watching tv:

And it hides our games:

My mom let me take this round black painted tray from her house years ago:

I like the balance of colors of in the room:

-warm tones: 2 round wood end tables, gray ottoman, warm coffee paint color, tan rug, warm brown panel curtains, tan window blinds

-cool tones: white sofas, cool brillant blue accessories on the 3 white shelves, silver accessories on shelves, softer paler blue pillows and throw blanket on 2 white sofas


Okay, now I'm headed back to tinker somewhere else our home.....

Happy tinkering, decorating, & living to you-
Megan